Science Snippet: The complexities of vineyard nitrogen nutrition
Di-ammonium phosphate is frequently added to grape juice at the start of fermentation to ensure yeast have adequate nitrogen to complete fermentation.
Could feeding cows brassicas help reduce nitrogen loss from the soil?
That's what University of Waikato second-year PhD student Sheree Balvert hopes to find out and recently landed a $10,000 scholarship to aid her research.
Sheree has been awarded the 2016 Pukehou Pouto Scholarship, which is awarded annually to students from any New Zealand university for postgraduate study in either agricultural science or silvicultural (forestry) science.
Sheree is researching negative agricultural impacts on the environment, which include water quality and greenhouse gas emissions.
"Cows are inefficient feeders with 70-95% of the nitrogen they eat being excreted in their waste," she says. "The concentrated urine patches that are deposited onto the ground contain more nitrogen than the plants and microbes in the soil can process, and the excess nitrogen is lost as nitrous oxide gas or as nitrate leaching out of the soil."
Sheree is researching the impact of feed change in cows, whether feeding them forage brassicas such as turnips, swedes and kale affects the nitrogen cycle and could reduce nitrogen loss in agricultural systems such as dairy or dry-stock farms.
"How and why this could work is what I'm trying to figure out," she says.
Sheree is supervised by Professor Louis Schipper at the University of Waikato and Dr Jiafa Luo at AgResearch. Her research is funded by the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) and the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGGRC). Her stipend is also provided by NZAGRC. In 2015, Sheree was one of 10 finalists in the University's Three Minute Thesis Competition.
The Commerce Commission says connectivity options for rural New Zealanders are front-of-mind as it begins a formal investigation into the future of the copper network.
Grand Finalists have been selected, all regional finals have concluded, and the journey towards the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final is underway.
Hopes of NZ sheepmeat prices picking up anytime soon in the country's key export market of China looks highly unlikely.
Regional councils are welcoming the certainty for councils in today’s Resource Management Act (RMA) announcement by the Government.
ASB says the decision to sign on to the AgriZeroNZ joint venture came out of a wish to be a part of the solution.
Federated Farmers says changes announced to the Resource Management Act today mark the end of the war on farming.
OPINION: Talking about plant-based food: “Chicken-free chicken” start-up Sunfed has had its valuation slashed to zero by major investor Blackbird…
OPINION: Synlait's financial woes won’t be going away anytime soon.